Positive reports from US tech giants pushed the Dax within reach of its recent record high at the start of trading on Friday.

The leading German index climbed by up to 0.8 percent to 16,989 points. In mid-December, the Dax had reached an all-time high of 17,003.28 points. The Dax was also supported by hopes that the US Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank (ECB) will make their first interest rate cuts in the first half of the year.

At the end of the week, the balance sheets of Amazon and Facebook parent company Meta were the main sources of euphoria. An unclouded consumer spending mood in the important Christmas period and robust demand for the cloud helped Amazon to achieve quarterly results above market expectations. Thanks to robust advertising revenue, the internet group Meta increased its turnover surprisingly strongly by a quarter to 40.1 billion dollars in the past quarter and intends to pay out a dividend for the first time. Both shares rose sharply in US after-hours trading.

On the German stock market, Mercedes-Benz was one of the biggest winners on the DAX, with a gain of three percent. The car manufacturer made significantly more from its operating business in the past year.

(Report by: Daniela Pegna, edited by Christian Götz. If you have any questions, please contact our editorial team at berlin.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for politics and the economy) or frankfurt.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for companies and markets).